


Bothering To Look

by BritishAssistant



Series: Inmate 0307 [4]
Category: Evillious Chronicles, ナンバカ | Nanbaka
Genre: Aura Vision, Auras, Bindings, Chi - Freeform, Coma, Fear of Death, Games, Gang Violence, Gen, Identity Reveal, Jealousy, Light Angst, Plushies, QI, Servant of Evil, Upa is a smol jelly bean, Vocaloid - Freeform, claw machine, he doesn’t want to share his friends, mild body horror, qigong
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-31
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-07-27 21:35:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20052886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BritishAssistant/pseuds/BritishAssistant
Summary: Nana was a weirdo.Not just in the normal way, of being a cowardly bowl-cut crybaby with eye bags instead of a spine, though it was funny to see him stagger and sink to the floor in despair when Upa called him that.No, Nana was all those things, but he had to go and be weird in another way as well.





	1. Chapter 1

Nana was a weirdo.

Not just in the normal way, of being a cowardly bowl-cut crybaby with eye bags instead of a spine, though it was funny to see him stagger and sink to the floor in despair when Upa called him that.

No, Nana was all those things, but he had to go and be weird in another way as well.

His presence was like a particularly annoying itch, one that grated incessantly at the edges of his senses, dulled as they were by the talisman.

He hadn’t noticed it as much when they first met, given that they’d only spent a limited amount of time together before Nana’s little “incident” that Samon-san kept annoying silent about. However, with each subsequent visit to the game room and each time Cell 6 came to Building 5 for exercise, the prickling sensation gradually grew and grew in intensity until Upa felt he might snap and punch the child clear through a building if only for the mild relief distance would bring.

But he didn’t, because Samon-san had taught him that would be bad and it would make Nico whine. See? He knew how to interact with people outside the underworld.

Take that, pig bastard.

Still, there was something wrong with that inmate. It was all the qigong master could do to maintain his caustically civil veneer in order to keep Nico happy. That guy was weirdly taken with the newbie ever since he’d shown an interest in the plots of his japanese games and comic books.

He really was too easily pleased at times. A disciple of his should have more self-discipline than that.

Well, whatever.

The one thing Upa had noticed about this irritation, though, was that it got stronger whenever Nana’s identity was brought up. He didn’t seem to get that the point of the numbers, and the names based off of them, was to protect the inmates’ identities, given the high likelihood of encountering someone dangerous with a grudge and few scruples in this place.

Sure, Upa himself knew the real names of Liang and the trash, but he wasn’t about to go out blabbing this valuable information willy-nilly, and vice-versa. The not-so-beautiful member of Cell 6 went off shouting about how he was Johnny Powers at every introduction, and most other opportunities besides.

The vehemence he displayed in dispensing his name was oddly contrasted with the child’s timidity in all other situations.

It was tempting to punch him in the shins to get him to shut up at times.

But again. Samon-san’s teachings and the infectee’s whining outweighed the satisfaction which might come from the action.

So he refrained, like a model citizen.

Upa thought he recognized the name a little, despite himself. Before the pig bastard got busted, he’d begun complaining about some upstart British brat who was trying to muscle in on his territory. Of all the guys who’d been sent out to deal with him, only one had come back, and he’d died immediately after arriving.

Of course, he was probably misremembering. If Johnny Powers was Nana, there was no way he could be the gang leader who was giving the chinese mafia such trouble. An notable underling of that guy, perhaps, but not the ruthless leader.

The last straw came about, like most things, because of Nico.

The pair of them were discussing the music for one of Nico’s japanese cartoons while Upa himself attempted to reassert his mastery of the dreaded claw machine. The pretty-boy pushover guard had said something about a new figure that was placed inside which Upa was determined to win.

For some reason, the conversation had drifted to robot singers, (Japan was weird as well, but that was a gripe for another day), which Nana was weirdly knowledgable about.

“So do you know any of the Evillious Chronicles? Y’know, the one with the seven deadly sins and everything?” He asked eagerly.

“That word sounds made up.” Upa contributed.

The claw grasped the foot of the figure, only to slip off harmlessly for the nth time when it raised back into the air.

“Is that the one with the Princess and Servant of Evil? With the blond twins?” Nico replied, absent-mindedly patting Upa’s shoulder to calm his temper and keep him from blowing this stupid, pointless machine to bits.

Nana, for his part, was quiet for a moment, before he shakily answered, “Ye-Yes, that’s—that’s the one. Um.”

Upa was able to grasp a leg, when Nana spoke again. “Umm, Nico? You—you know how Servant of Evil ends, right?”

The prickling feeling intensified as the crane’s claws lost their grip on the felt and the figure dropped back into the pile of plushies halfway to the exit.

“Ah, yeah. With the servant pretending to be the princess and getting executed instead of her, right? That bit seriously made me cry, especially when he smiles at her in the crowd! Uno had to hug me for a really long time after.”

“How could anyone mistake a boy for a girl?” Upa gritted out, somewhat irate at the dual sources of irritation. “Even if they look alike, there are too many differences for it to be feasible in real life.”

“But those two were twins, y’know? And they were only kids, like 14 or something, so they hadn’t had puberty yet.” Nico argued.

“I’m certain that puberty has already started at that stage.” Upa countered. “Besides, even children have differences that would make their genders obvious in the long term. The only way it would work is if everyone else was a moron and couldn’t see what was right in front of their faces.”

There was a moment of blessed silence wherein Upa could finally concentrate before Nana opened his mouth again. “What. What if he was forced? The servant, I mean?”

The claws completely missed the toy this time as Nico tilted his head. “Forced?”

“Like, if he didn’t want to die for the princess’s crimes, but the prince—“ Nana turned his head and coughed into the palm of his hand. “Excuse me—the princess had a way to make it so he had to take her place, and couldn’t tell anyone the truth. What if that was the case?”

The grating sensation was raging like a wildfire, and Upa had to grit his teeth to keep from lashing out.

The claw closed over the toy’s arm.

“I don’t think that’s what happened, Nana-chan.” Nico said slowly. “I mean, it’s pretty clear he’s willing, in the song’s lyrics and PV.”

Nana laughed, but it was weak and strained. “I guess so, huh? Don’t mind me, then. Just wondering about hypotheticals. My version wouldn’t make as good a song, would it?”

The toy fell to its doom again, a mere second before it would have dropped to freedom through the exit.

That. Was. _It._

Upa had had enough of this damn irritation distracting him when he was trying to do even the most menial of tasks.

He glared at Nana from the corner of his eye, willing him to knock off whatever the hell he was doing before Upa knocked his lights out.

And froze.

He’d never thought to take notice of Nana’s aura before. It didn’t seem like anything special when they first met, so he hadn’t given it much attention beyond that.

Now though...

Red energy was encircling his throat, almost ribbon-like in its delicacy, criss-crossing over itself until it resembled some demented version of a hangman’s noose.

His hands were swaddled in the stuff as well, each finger ensnared in a complex knot that made it seem almost impossible to move them. Some strands drifted upwards from his throat, almost innocently, to embed themselves in his lips and twist around his tongue to the point where it seemed amazing that he didn’t choke with every word.

The worst part, however, was the pulsing red mass of the stuff on the left side of the boy’s chest. It was tangled and twisted, knotted and snarled, until it was impossible to tell where one strand ended and another began.

And it was twined into and around the openings of Nana’s heart like a snake around a hapless mouse, just waiting for the chance to _squeeze_ the life out of its struggling victim.

“Shishou?”

Upa startled back to reality to see his wannabe-apprentice and the child staring at him in concern. “Do you want me to take over for you on the claw machine?”

“No. I’m fine.” He responded in a clipped tone, mind racing a mile a minute as he restarted the game.

It wasn’t doing Nana any harm this very second, but the tangled appearance of that energy was likely more intentional than haphazard— it was wound so tightly and so confusingly around Nana’s aura and itself that merely attempting to cut it out could prove ineffectual at best and fatal at worst.

“Are you sure you’re feeling okay, Upa-san?” And oh god, he could still see the strands moving with Nana’s mouth as he talked.

“I told you, I’m. _Fine_.” But you aren’t, he thought to himself as his hands moved the controller on autopilot. How long had he been living with this? Did he even know?

There was no way he didn’t. Upa reasoned. As extensive as this was, it was still new enough that it hadn’t incorporated itself into his aura entirely, as evidenced by the bright red coloration. If Upa had to guess, he’d say it had been implemented perhaps four weeks ago, maybe more.

“Yay, Shishou! You did it!”

Upa blinked at his enthusiastic cheerleader, then down at the clear plastic cover of the game’s opening. Slowly, he reached down and pulled the soft prize out from the machine’s interior.

He stared at it, for a moment.

Nana clapped his shoulder. “Well, I completely understand if you’re disappointed. I could give it to Kiji-san or somebody if you don’t want it? Though I’m not entirely sure who _would_.”

“Eeeh, but the mini-Nana-chan is so cute!” Nico protested, poking the soft blue felt of the toy’s stomach. “Plus it’s a super-ultra-rare item right now, so you should have more confidence in it and yourself!”

He reached out and patted Nana’s head, and then his hair turned a very familiar shade of teal while Nana’s went bright green.

“Ah.”

“NOT AGAIN!!” Came the braided scaredy-cat’s cry as the disease ripped through the game room, causing chaos in its wake.

Later that evening, Upa carefully placed his latest prize next to the others, making it sit beside the mini-Nico he had already acquired.

“Oi, trash.”

“Eh?” Qi poked his head up from where he was trying to stash Inori’s latest batch of dirty magazines. “What’s up?”

“What happened to that British gang leader who was giving the pig bastard a hard time?”

Liang stopped doing muscle training to stare at the question. Upa studiously ignored him.

Qi swallowed and adjusted his glasses. “Why do you ask?”

Upa shrugged. “Just curious. Do you know or don’t you?”

Qi scratched his ear. “Not really, no. I just remember doing an autopsy on the guy who came back from that assassination attempt.”

“Oh?” Upa said, trying hard to sound uniterested. “How did he die?”

“Well, that’s the thing.” Qi took off his glasses and rubbed them on his jumpsuit. “Hachiman killed the poor bastard after he tried to kill the pig. Some of the others said that the English had gotten into his head, made him an offer he couldn’t refuse if he turned traitor. There were some really weird rumors though.”

“I remember those.” Liang added. “Didn’t they say that the British guy could control bodies or something? Like through a doll or a puppet, or an attack charm.”

Maybe not through those mediums, Upa thought. But if the puppet strings were tied to someone’s aura? Then that gang leader might have a wind-up toy that only needed the right trigger to set it off.

“That’s too creepy.” Qi whined, shuddering. “I’m no good with European horror, not at all.”

“We’ll use that to wake you every morning too then, you late-rising scumbag.” Upa replied dismissively, turning back to his task.

“I’m begging you, don’t!”

He considered for a moment, then placed the mini-Upa on the mini-Nana’s other side, bracketing them in with the mini-Liang and Trash, then with the mini guards.

That weirdo needed all the protection he could get, he decided.


	2. Chapter 2

Of course, what that weirdo _needed_ and what he actually _got_ were two different things entirely.

Upa was rudely reminded of this fact when he woke up in an infirmary bed with Samon-San glaring down at him, holding Upa’s hat.

His entire body ached in a way it hadn’t since the pig’s gang was busted up. He felt like he’d gone through ten of Enki’s brutal training regimens in a row, and then had several chi draining talismans slapped onto him.

“If you ever pull a stunt like that again,” His supervisor informed him. “You’ll be reorganizing all the warehouses in every Building I can get permission from for the remainder of your imprisonment. And you’ll have American food for every meal.”

Upa pulled a face. “But it’s _greasy_.”

Samon-san shook his head and, worryingly, let out a strained and slightly helpless laugh. “Tough. That’s what you get for removing your talisman without permission, you little shit.”

Removing the talisman?

What was Samon-san talking about?

He tried to sit up. Why were there so many plastic wires attached to him?

Oh god, there was even a pair up his _nose_.

“Hey, hey, don’t pull that out!” Samon-san’s hands were oddly gentle as they caught his wrists, “That’s your oxygen feed, you need that to breathe, 58.”

Upa scowled as his supervisor pushed his hands down. “I can breathe just fine on my own.”

He wasn’t sulking. He _wasn’t_.

Samon-san’s expression changed. If he didn’t know better, he’d say his supervisor looked...lost. Like he used to whenever his brother was brought up. “You— you couldn’t, for a while there. You drained so much of your chi that for a while there, the doc wasn’t sure if you wouldn’t just— just shut down. Your organs were struggling to bear the burden of so much power being used all at once.”

“Well, that’s because some of them came from trash.” Upa muttered, studiously staring ahead. It was a meditational method. Detaching his mind from his body, which was not trembling as though it was a leaf in a gale. Not at all. Breathing in deeply was merely to aid in the meditation, and had nothing to do with his suddenly racing heart.

He. Was. _Fine_.

“...How much do you remember?” Samon-san was speaking in a soft and cautious voice, which Upa hated, just a little bit. His supervisor didn’t do cautious. He was a rallying force, charging straight ahead, reckless and impetuously kind because that was all he knew how to be. No artifice, no lying, no sugarcoating.

Upa furrowed his brow. Before he ended up in this bed, with these wires and the weirdly cautious Samon-san, he was—

His breath caught in his throat.

“_Nana_.” Writhing on the ground, head bleeding from where he’d hit the edge of the table when he went down like a pile of bricks, nails ripping deep desperate trails of red in his sternum and throat, eyes rolling back, gasping, choking, _dying_—

“58? 58! _Upa_!”

He was snapped back into reality, his breathing unaccountably ragged.

Samon-san had a firm grip on his shoulders. “Nana’s alive. She’s _fine_. You saved her. There’s nothing to worry about.”

Upa felt his uneven pants slowly begin to calm as his supervisor’s words sank in. Nana—Nana was okay. Nana was—

Wait.

“_She_?”

His supervisor finally cracked a smile at the sheer incredulity in his charge’s voice. “I forgot you were asleep for that part. Kiji was loud enough to wake the dead. His inmates kinda lost it as well.” He leaned in and added in a conspiratorial tone, “I think even the Warden was losing it a little bit.”

What—

But that’s—

How—

Nana always locked himself in the bathroom stalls when changing on the days Buildings 3 and 5 had exercise together, the one place where no cameras were allowed to look.

He always got mad at his perverted cellmates whenever they went on and on about women’s underwear.

He always liked the characters in Nico’s games and anime who were hiding their true identities, particularly those who were masquerading as the opposite sex.

_He always refused to see any doctors and hid when Kagu-8 was around._

“Holy _shit._”

Samon-san began laughing. Hysterically. Which was highly rude of him, no matter how welcome the sound was, because surely no one had laughed at Samon-san when he’d figured it out.

“**SHIIIIIISHOOOOOOUUUU**!!!”

A shadow fell over him.

Then its owner landed with all the force his bony frame could muster, which was surprisingly a lot considering how skinny he was. It was enough to drive all the air from his lungs, leaving him hacking as his assailant wrapped him in an octopus-like hug and continued blubbering incoherently.

“Ithoughtyouwerenevergonnawakeupeverevereveran’Iwouldbeallalonean’youwouldnevermoveagainandIwassososososcaredbecauseIreallyreallymissedyouandNanawantedtosaygoodbyebutyouwouldn’twakeupan’thenIheardthemonkeylaughingan’youwereawakeImissed—”

“25, get _off_ of him!” Samon-san howled, tugging at the infectee’s clothes.

“NO!” Nico tightened his grip beyond what Upa thought was possible, squishing the last of the air left out of his body.

This was it. He’d survived Hachiman, Enki, and even the backlash of his own chi. But it was going to be his wannabe disciple who killed him.

“Nico, he can’t breathe!” Came a voice that sounded like the useless lockpick’s.

“You’re choking him!” That one sounded like Liang’s.

“Ah!” Blessed air filled his lungs again as the bear hug finally loosened, and Nico allowed himself to be hauled off of the bed. “Sorry Shishou! I’m really sorry!”

Upa wheezed, and settled for glaring at him. “Yo-you will be.”

Of course, that just made the otaku giggle and beam. “I’m really glad you woke up, Shishou!”

“Ah geez,” The worthless scumbag appeared from behind the white divided curtain. “You kids nowadays have too much energy. Even Liang couldn’t catch him once he realized you were awake.”

His eyes softened. “How’re you feeling? I could whip up some painkillers if it hurts.”

“No, you can’t 71! You’re still restricted from producing pharmaceuticals! And how the hell did you guys even get in here anyway?! The door was locked!” The supervisor yelled.

“Hello.” Said the slow-footed lockpick.

Samon-san turned purple.

Liang crept closer while their supervisor was yelling at the Building 13 inmates. “I watered your cactus. The trash hasn’t extracted anything from it yet.”

“Thank you.” A thought struck him. “How long have I been asleep?”

“Two weeks.” Liang sucked in a deep breath, grabbing one of Upa’s hands and staring at him intently. “Never ask me to do that again. Do you understand?”

“Do what?” From what he could recall, the martial artist had barely been involved in Nana’s crisis. The only thing he’d been able to do in the end was remove—

Oh.

Liang squeezed his hand and let go. “I can’t lose either of you. Please keep that in mind.”

“Hmph. If you’re going to make so much of a fuss about it, I guess it can’t be helped.” The qigong master shook his head, ignoring the warm feeling in his chest, only to be elbowed in the gut again when Nico clambered onto the bed beside him.

“I wanna stay with Shishou! Nana said to look after him since he couldn’t say goodbye! So I’m staying!” He yelled, hugging his “master’s” arm to his chest.

“Nana’s gone?”

Samon-san deflated from where he was puffing himself up for another round of yelling. “...She was transferred to a hospital on the mainland five days after we discovered the truth. From there, what happens to her is up to the Japanese and British governments.”

“Oh.” He was...surprised. Except not really, because he should’ve anticipated this, even if Nana had been male.

He wasn’t disappointed at all. He wasn’t.

“The kid was pretty banged up, even though you managed to get to hi–_her_ in the nick of time. She needed some minor surgery that Otogi-san couldn’t do on his own. ” The trash sank down onto the next bed over. “Plus, it would be pretty irresponsible of the warden to keep a little girl in a male prison like this. I even heard that in Building 3, some jerks tried to get into the room where she was.”

“Hani and Trois are scary when they want to be.” The lockpick supplied solemnly from where he was perched on the end of the bed.

So it seemed the perverted cellmates had a use after all. Good.

“I’m gonna pretend I never heard that...” Samon-san grumbled. “Unfortunately I still need to question you, 58, to submit a more complete report to the Warden about what happened. But I figure that can wait until you’re coherent and can remember more about the incident in question.”

“Thank you, Samon-san.” He was tired. Was this what people called an emotional rollercoaster? If so, it was exhausting.

“Okay, you guys, out.” The supervisor pointed to the door.

“Eeeh? No fair!” Nico protested, hugging Upa harder.

“C’mon Samon-san, would another minute really hurt?” The worthless scumbag wheedled.

“I think it’s fine if you just leave us here with him.” Liang stated bluntly.

“Monkey’s being a jerk again.” The useless piece of trash added.

“SHUT UP AND GET OUT OR I’LL MAKE YOU ALL DO 50 LAPS AROUND THE ENTIRE PRISON BEFORE YOU CAN SEE HIM AGAIN!!” Samon-san roared, brandishing his staff.

It was with much grousing that the four stood up and filed out, though Nico promised to return with every good anime and manga he could think of tomorrow, no matter how much Upa asked him not to. The scumbag teased that he would use his cactus in medicines unless he got better quickly, to which Liang kicked him and swore that would never happen. The lockpick just said “Get well, Upa.” and ambled out.

Upa wondered if he even had a reason to come along in the first place.

Samon-san placed his hat next to the bed. “Ah, that reminds me; your relatives would like to pay you a visit next week, if you feel up to it.”

Upa felt his throat close up slightly. “I’d like that.”

Samon-san nodded, and then reached into his pocket. He brought out Upa’s mini-Nana, and a small tablet, and placed them in Upa’s lap. “Before she left, 07 gave me this. It’s her goodbye to you, since you weren’t awake when she left. I figured you could watch it on your own, since whatever’s on it is between you and her.”

He walked to the door, and flicked off the lights. “Goodnight, Upa. See you in the morning.”

He probably intended it to be a touching moment. But the problem was that Upa could barely find the tablet in the dark, let alone the button that turned it on.

His supervisor could be kind of stupid at times.

The Nana in the video was pale, and had bandages wrapped around his neck and chest. He looked about as tired as Upa felt, but he mustered up an awkward smile for the camera anyway.

“H-hey Upa-san! Long time no see, huh? I guess... ahem, anyway. I just wanted to say thank you. For saving me. I don’t know how on earth you did it, or even why...I was always afraid you didn’t like me very much— wait, forget I said that. I didn’t mean— Aargh.”

He took some smug satisfaction in the way Nana buried his head in his hands. Good. The pest deserved to suffer for irritating him and for assuming his feelings, no matter how correct the assumption might once have been.

“The point is, I am really, impossibly grateful that you stopped me from dying from that cockney bastard’s ability. Even if you did overexert yourself and put yourself into a coma like A COMPLETE JERK—” Nana paused and swallowed. “I’m-I’m sorry for yelling. It’s just— you’re my friend, Upa-san. You are one of the best friends I have been lucky enough to have in this place. I don’t ever want to see you hurt on my account, got it? EVER. I’d rather swallow needles, or break a bone or, or listen to one of Trois-senpai and Hani-senpai’s debates about underwear... okay, maybe not the third one, because that’s seriously painful, but the first and second ones definitely.”

So it was okay if Nana got hurt then, if it spared the best friends who could help? That was an unacceptable double standard. He absolutely needed to be forced to listen to his cellmates’ argument as punishment.

On the screen, the child’s expression grew pensive, changing until it seemed more mature somehow. “...I’m being transferred to Ken’non Hospital tomorrow. They’re going to see if the damage that bloody chav’s command did to my heart means that I should have something called a—a stent fitted. I don’t know what that means and I don’t really understand all the details, but I know it’s to keep me safe...”

He looked around, as though to check he was unobserved, before staring directly at the camera. “I’m not gonna insult you by sugarcoating it, Upa-san. There’s a 99% chance I’ll never be able to see you, or anyone else here, again once I leave this prison.”

What?

“I mean, there’s no way that cockney bastard’s gang is going to forgive me for landing their boss back in jail. There’s a 44% chance that whatever members escape arrest come and try to shoot up the hospital to get revenge. I’ll try to take down as many of those bastards as I can before too much damage is done, but I can’t guarantee I’ll survive.”

What the hell was he talking about? Yes, in his experience, gangs usually did that, but if he was that scared, why didn’t he tell the Warden?

Nana cleared his throat and continued. “Also, the Elf bastard who attacked me in the corridor in Building 13 isn’t likely to leave well enough alone. There’s a 45% chance he’s going to try and nab me for his supervisor to “fix”, and if he’s someone who can infiltrate the most secure prison in this world, I doubt a hospital will be much of a problem for him. I’m kinda torn between offing myself to spite him and just letting him do it, since Jyugo-san turned out okayish, I think? I don’t know. I don’t know.”

He rubbed the space between his eyes, seeming weary all of a sudden. “In-in addition to all that, there—there are—people—who don’t—don’t like me, very much. There’s a 50% chance they’ll get involved first. I’m good at running from them, but. It’s just a matter of time. I know that. They only need to get lucky once. And Game Over.”

He let out a little laugh that sounded more like a sob. “God, I’m scared. I’m so, so scared. I dunno why I’m telling you this. I just. I don’t wanna leave. I really, really don’t wanna. I love it here, Kiji-san’s here, Hani-senpai and Trois-senpai are here, Nico-san and _you_ are here. I’m safe here. But after yesterday... the Warden won’t listen, even if I do explain. Everyone treats me like I’m glass now. I miss how you treated me. I miss being Nana.”

Upa wanted to scream at the crybaby for telling him this, wanted to scream at the Warden for sending him away. He knew that weirdo needed protection, he needed to tell Samon-san, he needed to tell every guard in Nanba to go out and get Nana back, he didn’t want him to _die_—

But then something happened.

Nana breathed in deeply, and seemed to settle into himself. The fear in his eyes, while still present, was pushed down slightly by a look of new-found defiance. “But...well, this is more, Hani-senpai and Trois-senpai and Uno-san’s thing than mine, but... there’s a chance. A 1%, almost impossible chance that I’ll survive all of that. And that I will see you and everyone else again, be it in prison or out. So maybe this is only my own selfishness, and totally naive and unrealistic, but I’m gonna bet on that chance. I’ll put everything I have behind it, even if it is a sucker’s bet. Because I want to make it happen. I’m _going_ to make it happen.”

Upa stared at Nana’s grinning face, sharp and desperate and alive. “So I hope you bet on that chance too, Upa-san. Because I swear I’m not gonna rest until I’ve turned this “goodbye” into a see you soon~.”

The video ended.

Upa set the tablet back down, watching the blue light of the screen illuminate the ceiling.

Idiot. Did that cowardly bowl-cut crybaby with eye bags instead of a spine think if he said that like a protagonist, he would actually change anything?

Well, whatever.

If that crybaby didn’t make that bet happen, he would never forgive him. He would find a way to imbibe his ghost into the doll-version of himself if that weirdo dared to get himself killed.

_Breaking News: Local police report that an armed assault has been carried out on Ken’non Hospital at 7:00 AM this morning. It is unknown whether multiple parties were involved in the assault, but there have been no fatalities thus far, though many patients and personnel are wounded, with some in critical condition. However, the young woman famously released from Nanba Prison, ||||||||| |||||, has been reported as missing following the assault. Police are investigating certain leads, but urge members of the public to come forward with any information they might have about the young teenager’s whereabouts._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dead End 2: Sucker’s Bet
> 
> Enter Coin to Play Again?


End file.
